The week that was: Seven days on Storyful

Every week, we take a look back at the week in video. Here is our selection of this week’s highlights.

It was a tough week for GOP hopeful Herman Cain, who, fresh from accusations of sexual harassment, suddenly found himself explaining an apparent brain freeze on Monday when faced with a question about Libya from the Journal Sentinel of Milwaukee. Asked whether he agreed with President Obama’s handling of the situation in Libya, Cain struggled to articulate any coherent response. “See, I got all this stuff twirlin’ round in my head,” he said by way of explanation for his difficulties:

Syria hit back at the Arab League’s threat to suspend it from the organisation if violence against its civilian population does not cease, calling it an “illegal” move and a “dangerous step.” Yet violence continued in the country, with residents of the western flashpoint city of Homs waking up on Monday to find corpses dumped on the roadside [Warning: This video contains scenes of a graphic and disturbing nature]:

Police moved in and cleared Occupy Wall Street’s camp in Zuccotti Park on Tuesday, prompting days of marches, protests and court battles as protesters looked for ways to keep their movement alive. The video below shows police warning protesters that they are about to move in:

Dozens of Kuwaitis stormed the National Assembly on Wednesday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad Al-Sabah. Many gained entrance to the Assembly while hundreds more demonstrated outside in a protest led by opposition members of government. This video shows the moment when the protesters gained entry to the National Assembly:

Quick-thinking #OccupyCal students “pitched” tents in the sky after police cleared their camp at the University of California at Berkeley on Thursday. The students claimed to have circumvented a police order banning them from pitching tents at Sproul Plaza by simply using balloons to float the tents over the plaza:

There were massive demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square on Friday calling for the country’s military junta to hand over power. The demonstration, which journalists on the scene said involved up to 200,000 people, comes just under a fortnight ahead of crucial parliamentary elections. Protesters from disparate groups united with a simple demand for the military to hand over power to an elected civil government — amid wrangling over a document that critics say would guarantee the military a ‘special place’ in Egyptian politics:

Firefighters in Reno, Nevada in the US were battling to control wildfires on Friday that destroyed at least 20 homes and threaten thousands more. Thousands of residents were evacuated as fires raged over hundreds of acres in northern Nevada. One of the worst blazes began at Caughlin Ranch, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. A nearby resident uploaded the following video, describing how he woke in the middle of the night to the glow of the fire and saw flames on the mountain across the canyon from his home. Within an hour, he says, the flames had reached his balcony: